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Riding Out Hurricane Georges Onboard Mariposa

by Michael D. Biggs

The following is from the log I kept on board Mariposa, an Island Packet 350, as I prepared for and then rode out Hurricane Georges on board. Georges had winds estimated at a maximum sustained speed of 110 mph as it approached Mississippi and Louisiana. It was moderately large in size, but those winds put it only at the edge between Categories 2 and 3, not especially powerful.

I had said that I’d probably ride out onboard hurricanes with winds up to 80 mph in the backwaters I expected to hide out in, and I’d get off for winds over 120 mph. In between was a gray area in which I’d decide when the time came. In this case the decision was relatively easy, because Georges was going inland far enough away that we would have winds only up to about 75 mph, probably....

As a newcomer to saltwater sailing, I was especially anxious to accompany two experienced sailors as they moved their boats from the Biloxi Yacht Club to a bayou off the Biloxi Back Bay. I had read magazine articles about preparing for hurricanes, but these two had actually done it, and if I could manage to go along with them, I’d have the benefit of their experience as I prepared. I thought I was getting a head start, but about an hour before I planned to leave for the two-hour drive to the boat, I received a call from the club stating that all boats were being asked to move. Suddenly it was clear I was not ahead at all, but in serious danger of being left behind, and I hastily grabbed everything I thought I needed and headed out. The two sailors I was hoping to accompany aren’t actually named Odysseus and Jason. The names weren’t changed to protect the innocent. Neither Odysseus nor Jason is innocent, and neither need protection, but I have not asked their permission to use their real names, hence the pseudonyms.

[Items in brackets and italics like this were added to the log afterwards for clarification and amplification.]

Friday, September 25, 1998 - 3:00PM Arrived at slip. Hadn’t taken time to grocery shop, because didn’t want to miss Odysseus and Jason when they pulled out. Most boats were already gone, but their boats were still in the slips.

Filled water tank, generally prepared to pull out. Odysseus arrived around 4, Jason [and his wife] around 4:30. We pulled out around 5. I had little trouble getting out of the slip single-handed, although it was a little tough to [do so] until I released the port stern line.

I trailed Jason and Odysseus through the Hwy 90 drawbridge into Old Fort Bayou. Beautiful area. We went through another drawbridge connecting Ocean Springs to mainland, and found a channel about 3 miles further on. Jason and Odysseus anchored, Jason pointed in, Odysseus pointed out, then lashed their two boats together. Then they called me in to tie up to Jason’s port side with my starboard side.

We lashed up enough for the night, then used a cell phone to order pizza delivered to the nearby public boat ramp. It was Domino’s, and delicious. [I paid, after saying that I wanted us to order two pizzas so that there’d be an extra to supplement my meager groceries. I had enough food to avoid starvation for at least a week, but much of my reserve consisted of cans of pork and beans and string beans. I dislike pork and beans, and only tolerate string beans.]

I wasn’t uncomfortable, but didn’t sleep very well. As delicious as the pizza was, I think it interfered with my sleep. [I had to rig a wind scoop to get decent ventilation that first night. I thought there must be some irony at work, that I had to use a wind scoop while hiding out from a hurricane.]

Saturday, September 26, 1998 I got up around 7AM, made coffee, and got to work. The dodger and bimini came off fairly easily. It was necessary to disassemble the frame, then reassemble it behind stays, etc., where I could lash it down. Somewhere along then Odysseus appeared on deck and started taking down his roller-furling genoa. I finished the dodger and bimini, and started taking down my staysail and genoa. I let the staysail halyard get away from me, so will have to go half-way up the mast to drop a weighted line, then fish for it at the base, to get it rerun. Otherwise I got the two foresails down okay.

Then Odysseus decided to take down his main, so I had that to do, too. [Odysseus and Jason had said the day before that the main, furled on the boom and under a sail cover, did not need to be removed because the small amount of drag it presented was low enough to be essentially harmless. Wrapping a line around the sail cover would suffice. I do not know why Odysseus changed his mind, but I am sure all three of us were glad later that we removed our mains.] In the middle of that, around 10AM, Jason arrived by dinghy. He and his wife had dinghied to a nearby neighbor, getting a ride back to their pickup, and had then spent the night at home. His wife didn’t come along this time.

Jason and Odysseus started setting out some lines to shore while I finished getting my main down. That done, we used the dinghy to carry my anchor and chain out, and set it next to Jason’s anchor. It’s acting more as a backup now, as I used a rolling hitch on a mooring line to the anchor chain to take the strain off the windlass, and that left a fair amount of slack in the system.

We ran two stout lines from my boat across the open channel, and one from Odysseus’s boat, to pine trees on the other side [the north side of the channel, my side]. We left these lines slack for now, so that we wouldn’t block the channel. [We also ran four lines from Jason’s and Odysseus’s boats to the south bank, tying them to small pine trees.]

Things were beginning to take shape by 3PM. Jason dinghied me to the neighbor’s where his wife picked us up and they took me to the club to get my van. They picked up ice for Odysseus and led me back to the dinghy, where Jason brought me back to the boats before heading for his home. [At this time, my dinghy was still hanging in its davits.]

6:15PM rain storm/squall moved through, testing our tie-up. Even with the lines across the channel slacked, there was little movement.

Georges has continued to move more-or-less straight toward New Orleans. They are no longer predicting that it will turn more northerly, so now it probably will. If it continues in to New Orleans, we will get wind and rain, but the wind shouldn’t be too bad.

Tomorrow morning we’ll tighten up the lines, batten down the hatches, and see what happens.

Another meal of pizza, but this time I gobbled some Tums before hitting the sack.

Sunday, September 27, 1998 First light Water level 2 - 3 ft higher. Slept well. Still looks like Georges will go in over NO.

They are saying the way it looks now, we will get tropical storm force winds by early afternoon, hurricane force around 1AM, and the hurricane force winds will last until early Tues - if Georges continues to move as it has been. Some signs it may slow down.

Adjusted lines to shore, put another rope on anchor chain to take shock loads off of windlass, and tied dinghy down. It’s in the water behind the boat. I’m a little worried wind might get under it, but don’t want to deflate it. Chances are it will get several inches of rainwater in it well before high winds hit, and that should hold it down.

I forgot my thyroid medicine [left it at home in my rush not to miss Odysseus and Jason], but caffeine seems to be an acceptable substitute.[That was okay up to that time, but by the next day I could accomplish little in the way of sustained physical effort.]

I’m keeping the batteries between -70 and -150 amp hours, but will probably have to come out a couple of times in the wind and rain to crank up the engine for charging. [As always, the bulk of the power drain was the refrigerator. But I also left all the instruments on.]

Radio reports water over some local roads. Odysseus says TV [on board his boat] shows water nearing Hwy 90 in Biloxi. It will probably go under. Odysseus and radio report [predict, from past experience] little trouble from storm surge back here where we are, but the high water outside will keep rain water from getting out. Thus, we may see a rise of another couple of feet.

9:40AM Remembered to remove dorades. Hurricane gust would probably drive spray around the corners, and might just rip them out of the holes. Boat now buttoned up - no ventilation. Winds 20 - 30 mph in gusts. Light rain.

10:45AM A few gusts have rocked the boat, so I went out to check wind speed. Highest I saw was still under 30 mph.

A number of large power boats are tied up close enough to see. They all still have biminis up over their flying bridges. Odysseus also says they have only one anchor each, although it appears they are at least tied off at the stern. [Odysseus actually said all powerboaters carry only one anchor, and it usually isn’t big enough to ride out a storm.]

East of us are three sailboats. They put out lines across the channel, but didn’t tighten them (blocking the channel) before leaving. [Actually, we found out later, they set an anchor or two across the channel. But the channel was not wide enough to allow sufficient scope, by a large margin, and the bottom is clay.] Maybe they still plan to come back. Right now they have swung over what was dry land yesterday. They may find themselves stranded after the storm, if they don’t get back soon enough. Odysseus says they are "bar sailors," even though he also says some of them are live-aboards.

Back to reading, I guess. Looks like I’ll probably be doing a lot of that for the next couple of days.

12:30PM Light rain, still 20 - 30 mph wind in gusts. Forecast calls for us to continue with tropical force winds until Tuesday morning.

2:30PM Light rain, gusts to 40, maybe a little higher, from 30 deg. Lines look OK, although this is still small potatoes.

5:00PM Wind kicking up a bit. Gusts maybe to 50 mph, although I can’t catch any on anemometer when I check (not often). Boats are rocking to gusts, now, and we may have winds as much as 3 times higher. I sure hope not. Track now heading more north, so now appears Georges will go in around Lake Borgne. That would bring the eye within 40 miles of us. On the bright side, the hurricane force winds don’t extend out nearly so far now as earlier. But we may have winds like what we are having now (or a little higher) for another 36 hours.

6:00PM Big time wind. Saw only 45mph on anemometer, but got chilled just trying to watch instrument for a couple of minutes. Will have to go back out in a couple of hours to stop engine - charging batteries now.

8:00PM Radio reports gusts near here at 64 mph.

Monday, September 28, 1998 3:00AM  Higher winds

4:00AM Still higher winds. Looks like it’s coming right over us, or just to west of us. Winds over 100 mph reported in Biloxi by radio.

Think we’ve lost a bumper or two, but can’t do much about it now. Maybe at daylight.

5:00AM Eye nearby - occasional break. All bumpers okay, but needed to move one. A wetsuit makes excellent foul weather gear for this weather. Still need to tighten bow line to Jason’s boat. Line from Jason to Odysseus broke or came loose. Odysseus winched out with his stern line [actually his bow line, since he was facing oppositely from Jason and me], thereby got close enough to hit me a grazing blow to the face with his line. I cleated it to Jason’s boat. Need more, but that ought to do until daylight.

Earlier saw what may have been St. Elmo’s fire. [It wasn’t. I found out later I’d just seen Odysseus on the bow of his boat with a spotlight.]

5:30AM Relatively calm now. Relatively. Except when I went out to tighten line from Mariposa to Jason’s bow. Looks like Jason’s anchor has pulled loose, or the line is broken. Other lines on my side looked okay. Jason has a line to south bank, so I shouldn’t have to rely on line from Odysseus to Jason to hold me off north bank. Besides, if eye goes over us, next wind should come from west.

9:00AM Cranked the engine to recharge. Ties look okay. Wind is now coming from 120 deg. Water is about 7 ft deeper than when we set up. Radio says eye has stalled. Incredible number of idiots calling in to radio. "My power’s out. Will the power company send the men out today?" "I’ve still got strong winds from the north. Does that mean this is going to continue for a while longer?"

The dinghy is full of water, and the gas tank is floating in it upside down. Water in the dinghy is good, since that will keep it from blowing away. Water in the gas tank (I left the cap loose because the vent screw was frozen) isn’t so good.

10:30AM Hurricane is sitting still, dumping rain, and weakening very slowly. Looking for many more hours of high winds. Still looking okay here, but looking out portholes I saw one power boat drift off into the trees; the big power boat behind us has lost its bimini; and a sailboat behind us has had a genoa unfurl and begin to rip.

It’s early, yet, but I’m feeling better about this. I’m warm and dry, have food and water, and electricity. I might sink, but I don’t really have to worry about rising water.

11:00AM Noticed I had a line to Jason’s bow that was fraying. Turned out to be nearly frayed in two. Put a second line over, with dish towel under both. Then ran another line to Odysseus. We got down to only one line last night (after we replaced it!). Odysseus has two lines heading off in direction we expect wind to swing to, but for Jason and I to benefit, we need to stay lashed to Odysseus. Odysseus brought out another line as well, so now we have three lines tying Odysseus to Jason.

Odysseus said last night was scary, and I certainly agree. We get an occasional gust now that makes the rain sting, but the boats aren’t rolling and pitching nearly so much. Odysseus also heard a report that Keesler AFB measured a gust at 172 mph. Maybe. I’d certainly believe the 125 mph I heard a little earlier.

Batteries once again fully charged. Clearly I need to get at least two more long, heavy lines so that I can tie up alone if I need to.

12:45PM Looks like winds are now out of the SW.

1:00PM Idiots continue to call in. "Water is within 60 ft of our house. Are we going to get water in our house?[Note there was no mention of the elevation between the water and the house, even if the people at the radio station had any basis for predicting further water rise] " "Things seem pretty calm in __ now, when will they send the power crews out? We’ve been without power since about __ o’clock last night."

2:00PM Winds definitely out of SW, but still blowin’ and goin.’ At least for now the eye has moved north. If it either continues [to move away], or just stays inland, things ought to improve.

Lines look okay, no signs of any additional fraying. Appears to be a strong current out, although it may be mostly a wind-blown circulation. So far I see no signs the [water] level is dropping. There were reports of such on the radio an hour ago.

6:00PM Just spent hour and a half trying to help Odysseus get back alongside Jason’s boat. For a while we thought he was aground. He says his rudder wouldn’t turn, which might imply that he was aground. On the other hand, the current is fierce now, and he was stern-to. I think maybe he’d accumulated a bunch of debris that put a strong drag on his boat. The behavior really didn’t seem to make much sense. [It was clear from the grooves in the grass later, when the water was back to normal level, that Odysseus was aground at some time. But in the process of trying to get back alongside Jason, he had slacked lines, winching fore and aft in an effort to free his boat and get back alongside. I think the initial problem was debris and high current, He thinks he was aground.]

In the middle of our efforts, Jason dinghied up with his son-in-law, and helped us a bunch. After we got Odysseus repositioned Jason re-ran the lines holding us to the south of the channel. While he was at it, Jason reclaimed then reset his anchor.

Think water level had dropped about 3 ft from max.

8:00PM Mist, no particular wind, fierce current. Wonder if I have a slip left to keep the boat in.

Tuesday, September 29, 1998 7:00AM Cool, drizzly day, wind 12 - 15 mph from west. People continuing to call in to radio station, complaining because they don’t have power back yet.

Water level only one foot deeper than when we arrived. Three sailboats who went further in than we did are aground, two of them well up on land. Pretty sure we are okay. Many lights on along the backside of Ocean Springs visible from here, so they already have power.

Bailed the dinghy. It was full, but a 5 gal bucket takes big bites. Took less than five minutes. Outboard started fine.

10:00AM Returned from neighbor’s, where I’d gone to use the phone. Called Dad and the office to tell them the boat and I are fine. Neighbor had no damage to his house, but lost the mast on his 20+ foot sailboat when the port chainplate pulled out.

My van was also fine. On my return, Odysseus told me Jason had called (probably by cell phone, but possibly by VHF radio) and said the BYC marina was okay. Odysseus’s and my finger piers were gone, but the slips were okay. We plan to head back tomorrow.

3:00PM Dinghied up to I-10 bridge. Lot of boats washed up in the trees. One boat had a large pine tree fall so close, its mast was bent. Looked like the tree took out a spreader, and the wind bent the mast, but it may have been all tree. [About a third of the boats in our general area lost one or more lines, and drifted into shallow water where they were left high, if not entirely dry, when the water level returned to normal. Many powerboaters left up their biminis, but no biminis were to be seen afterwards. About half of the sailboats that had not taken down furling sails had them unfurl and rip to shreds.]

Word is that the drawbridge north of Ocean Springs is without power, and that they are hoping to get it back into operation tomorrow. We’re pinned where we are until it opens.

Wednesday, September 30, 1998 7:00AM Light overcast, cool day. Looks good for sailing.

(We set out around 9AM, but were told by a power boater that the railroad bridge was closed and would not open until Saturday. Odysseus continued on, while Jason and I returned to our channel and once again set out lines. This time I planned to leave the boat, and return Saturday morning. Jason and I dinghied to the launch ramp where I deflated my dinghy and put it and the outboard into my van. Then we went to Jason’s house, where we were told that the railroad bridge was open, and Odysseus was in his slip. So we went back to the boats, pulled in the lines, and headed out once again for our marina.

(Along the way a fleet of seven shrimp boats passed us, ten minutes before reaching a shallow stretch where they all ran aground. I was trying to follow Jason, who has forward looking sonar, but with the shrimpers higgledy-piggledy, churning hither and yon looking for water deep enough, I wasn’t able to stay right behind him. I managed to struggle through, though. Mariposa draws only 4’ 3" thank goodness. As it was, it felt like I bumped a couple of times, but never slowed.

(It was awkward getting into the slip, since the missing walkway left behind sharp-edged supporting planks, but I managed with the help of Odysseus and Jason. Then I drove home to Baton Rouge.

(Lessons learned: Get groceries. Don’t forget medicine. Get another 400 ft of 5/8 inch anchor line. Get a portable VHF for radio communications while I’m down below, even if only to someone else down below in the same raftup. See about a cellular phone. Always reduce windage as much as possible, removing all sails and awnings. Don’t rely heavily on the hurricane predictions. Desirable characteristics for hurricane holes: tight quarters for minimal waves, short trees to tie up to, no tall trees to fall on you, small enough that there will be no neighbors, suitable for likely additional water depths, close to car parking on high ground. )